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MAL Ep. 14
In this session, our heroes uncovered a sanctuary of the pestilence god Corrigar in the sewers beneath Hastenport. After some investigations in town, they then departed to scope out Arakin Tower again, having an adrenalized encounter with Threndix the red dragon enroute. Specifics: *The party told Captain Black about the ambush in the brothel, and got a warrant from her to enter the warehouse. *The party discovered a hidden trap door in the warehouse. Aler found a trap on it in the nick of time before Adriel could injure herself, and Adriel opened it safely with a crowbar instead, revealing the symbol of a fish skeleton on the underside of the trap door. Zadkiel identified the fish as a symbol of Corrigar, a lesser-known god of pestilence and sorrow. *The party followed the staircase down into the sewers, much to Seela's disgust. They encountered a goblin maintenance man, with whom they did not tarry long to speak, and observed two more fish skeleton symbols etched into the stone walls of the sewers. *The party was forced to wade through the raw sewage in order to reach the next section of the sewer, contracting filth fever (which they had to pay to cure the next day.) *Approaching a crosswalk in the sewers, the party was attacked by a Banshee Ard (greater banshee.) Its destructive banshee wail came close to killing multiple party members, but was thwarted by Jon's countersong and Zadkiel's absorbing much of the damage. *For some reason unknown to Zadkiel, this action caused him to manifest an angelic form, which gave him the ability to fly and maximized the healing spells he cast. This form disappeared at the end of the fight. *The party discovered a sanctuary with a stone pentacle, glowing green obelisk, inactive magic mirror, and large imposing altar.with a symbol of Corrigar on it. *There was a priest wearing the robes and amulet of the sea goddess Sesharet in this room. The party never asked his name, but he claimed to be a priest of Sesharet and gave strangely plodding, repetitive answers to their questions. Eventually Seela recognized him for an illusion, at which point a spell detonated causing damage and a Slow spell to PCs in a radius from the obelisk. *Jon and Tanya, who were examining the oddly shifting green tiles on the altar and stone circle, suddenly became overcome by the compulsion to lie down on the altar. Khirg and Adriel prevented them, and the compulsion passed. *Bay unlocked the door behind the altar, discovering a corridor leading down into a maze of sewer tunnels. The trail was cold, and the party suspected that the illusion and slow-spell trap were left behind to keep them from pursuing whoever had really been down here. *Aler opened a secret compartment in the altar, finding two potions of cure disease, a vial of blood, and a wavy dagger of a strange green metal which Jon later identified as a +1 deepsteel dagger of bleeding. *Zadkiel was dissuaded from testing what would happen if he laid on the altar, and the group returned to the docks district. Aler cast Speak With Animals on Syla, who had remained behind spying on the street, and learned that some orcs and dockworkers drinking in two local taverns had gotten into a brawl, but it was broken up by some sailors. Apparently tensions are rather high in the docks. *The party returned to the Citadel district, where Jon performed at Ruby's, making up a new political song about how foolish the dockworkers' strike is and that the city is being tricked. It was well-received, though in fairness there were no dockworkers in the audience. *Jon went to speak with Jen, who seemed shaken up by the ordeal. She confirmed that the story the impostor told Jon about an acolyte of Sesharet was one she really had heard from a client and intended to tell Jon about, but that the attacker never spoke with her, so she does not know how he learned it. *Vanessa came to Jon's mansion for a private meeting with him. *Zadkiel noticed Kit crying under the stairs late at night; she expressed dismay about her bad spelling nearly getting Jon killed, but begged Zadkiel not to tell Jon she was upset, because she was afraid that if Jon thought she was "a pain," he would abandon her. Zadkiel told her Jon would never do that, but agreed not to tell Jon. *The party went to the Citadel in the morning and answered questions about the brothel ambush for Detective Noyar, who confirmed that both Jen and the murdered taxman had had a piece of hair removed from their heads. His questions also narrowed down the unlikeliness that Jen could have staged the entire thing himself-- since Aler has true seeing activated at the time the "Jen" with the succubus appeared to go through the portal, she could not have slipped downstairs to pose as a victim instead. Also, the true seeing rules out the possibility that it could have been an illusion--if it was not truly Jen, then it must have been either a nonmagical disguise or an innate shapeshifter. Finally, he said that Beyond Kendra had cast Speak With Dead on the dead bouncer, whose description of the attacker matched Jen's. *Captain Black asked the party to determine whether Dayant Arakin had returned to her tower in the moors. She said that if the undead had respawned there it was not necessary for the party to retake the tower, merely returning with the reconnaissance would be sufficient; but that if they had not and the party explored the tower, they could keep any loot they found there. *The party returned to talk to Petros again. Petros said no chunk of his hair had been removed from his head, but noted that he had been losing hair lately and it might have been taken from his hairbrush. He also told the party that in certain black magic traditions, a person's hair, blood, or other body parts can be used to enact rituals against them. *The party finally (after 14 sessions!) discussed their curses with Petros. He said he felt certain he was not cursed, but agreed with the party that being framed for murder may have been curse enough for Chavalk's purposes. He had a long conversation about curses with the party. Some of the highlights were: Petros said Chavalk could not possibly have cast so many different types of curses himself, and that he hypothesized each curse had been cast by a different ally of Chavalk's. The party guessed perhaps this might have been done as a method of drawing the League of Snakes together, or perhaps proving the allies' loyalty and worth (thus why Harasket said the curses had "already served their purpose.") Petros noted that two curses had been undone by confronting the people who had cast them, and that it stood to reason finding and confronting the casters of the other curses might remove them too. He wondered who was the author of the curses against Barris and Morgana, and what might have befallen Skenebrax and Aluon. *Petros' imprisonment keeps him from being able to help Adriel and Jon with their curses himself, but he recommended the Third Eye as the organization best equipped to help them with such matters, and gave them the names of Eyeman Tellis in Asture or Eyewoman Terreira in Ruastin. *The party went to ask Barris about deepsteel and learned that it is of Infernal origin and causes additional pain whenever someone is cut by it, causing concentration checks to fail. Combining that with the bleeding enchantment, the party deduced this was probably a sacrificial knife. *Aler asked Barris and Jon about being demonmarked. He and Jon provided the information that only a fairly powerful demon lord can "mark" a mortal, and that other demons therefore avoid killing such a person on Malachi, even if it means their deaths, because dying on Malachi does not permanently kill them and may inconvenience them less than risking the anger of a more powerful demon. Obviously, this means there would be exceptions to the rule, such as if a group of demons has already been made aware that the demonmark comes from a demon lord their own master is at war with or some such eventuality. Also, demons encountered on the Abyss itself tend to protect their own lives much more aggressively since being killed there truly destroys them. *The party visited Seven and had her take pictures of the inscriptions on the deepsteel knife to research for them. *Then the party set off for Arakin tower. The first leg of the journey was uneventful. They got a message from Seven, telling them the inscription was in the Tenarri language and reads "blood to power, power to blood." She also told them that while spying in the Cathedral of Tallian, she saw Jeddas, the new Head Paladin, petitioning Father Valerian to criminalize necromancy immediately in light of what happened with Dayant Arakin. Valerian considered this too divisive, but gave Jeddas his permission to contact the High Priest in Asture about it. *Resuming travel the next morning, the party was confronted by Threndix, who demanded they turn over Tanya as a "dangerous extraplanar being of chaos." Khirg and Zadkiel refused; Adriel and Jon tried to negotiate. Khirg urged Tanya to escape through the Veil, but she lacks the ability to bring him with her and refused to leave him behind, instead offering to swear a magical oath not to harm Malachi. Threndix instead seized her, and a short, violent battle ensued. *Some talking with Threndix did occur amongst the mayhem. Jon used Suggestion to try and persuade Threndix not to hurt the non-Tanya members of the party since they were clearly allies against Chavalk; Threndix seemed willing to exempt at least Jon from his wrath. Zadkiel tried to convince Threndix that his actions were counterproductive and actually strengthening Chavalk; Threndix replied that Chavalk was not the only extraplanar menace out there and though he must be opposed, so must the others. Red condemned Threndix for his actions in Mendham Wood and accused him of being as bad as Chavalk. Adriel demanded to know whether it was true what he had done in Mendham Wood; Threndix clearly didn't care about or even remember the particular episode from seven years ago, but said if he'd done it then it obviously needed doing, at which point Adriel turned against him. *The party dished out a pretty substantial amount of damage, but the tide really turned when Seela revealed herself as the fey lord Lochrann and blasted him with her potent magics. Reassessing the tactical situation as less favorable to himself than he had expected and/or feeling the need to process this new information before choosing his next move, the dragon disengaged and flew away, leaving Tanya behind. (He had ripped her head off, which would have killed any of the rest of you, but Tanya isn't as attached to her head as other folks...) *Lochrann explained that the Faery Queen had decided against directly engaging Chavalk, Malachi not being their domain and all, but that Lochrann had hit on the idea of indirectly working against him by supporting his enemies native to the plane; however, now that her cover is blown, she can no longer do so. She asked Tanya what form Shyra had when she captured her, and Tanya answered that she looked like a beautiful elven woman with black hair and raven's wings-- who Lochrann believes must have been the faux vampire the group saw escape from Tylden Square. *Jon asked how he could contact Lochrann, and she summoned a Dreamweaver for him-- basically an exceptionally loyal magical familiar. This one is able to bring a message to Lochrann for him. She also stated that she would consider it a personal favor if the party is able to kill or neutralize Chavalk, who offended her clan by consuming the souls of selkies under her protection, and that her grandmother the Morrigu might look kindly upon the possibility of mobilizing the Wild Hunt on Piper's behalf "for a friend of our Folk." And there we left our heroes, battered and exhausted but surprisingly alive for a bunch of 12th-level adventurers who just went toe-to-toe with a dragon. Onward! Laura